View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "These Hands, If Not Gods," what is the antecedent of the word "they" in the opening line "Haven't they moved like rivers?" (7)?
(a) The powers of Prometheus.
(b) The speaker's hands.
(c) The beloved's hands.
(d) The powers of the Christian God.

2. In "Blood-Light," what does the speaker say the story is about?
(a) Land.
(b) Love.
(c) Blood.
(d) Stars.

3. In "Blood-Light," what is the speaker imagining with the words, "Don't you want a little light in your belly?"
(a) A way to communicate genuine joy.
(b) Her brother's motive for trying to stab her.
(c) Her mother's motive for constantly trying to feed her.
(d) How to tell her lover that she wants them to have a child.

4. In "Manhattan Is a Lenape Word," what is the speaker's objection to her lover saying, "You make me feel like lightening" (15)?
(a) She associates lightening with Manhattan.
(b) She associates lightening with violence.
(c) She associates lightening with rain.
(d) She associates lightening with whiteness.

5. In "These Hands, If Not Gods," what is being referred to by the phrase "these two potters" (7)?
(a) The speaker and the beloved.
(b) The speaker's hands.
(c) Prometheus and Hecatonchire.
(d) The Mojave gods who created humans.

6. In "Skin-Light," what is the most likely antecedent of "it" in the line "My whole life I have obeyed it" (21)?
(a) The "glide of the hand."
(b) "The opened-gold field."
(c) This "god-made place."
(d) "Skin-Light."

7. In "Asterion's Lament," what does the phrase, "Go forward, always down" represent (27)?
(a) Commentary about U.S. history.
(b) The title of a Whitman poem.
(c) Ariadne's advice to Theseus.
(d) Directions from the forest to the sea.

8. In "Like Church," to what does the speaker compare the beloved's hip?
(a) A searchlight.
(b) The quarter moon.
(c) An orchard.
(d) A window.

9. In "Run'n'Gun," what causes the speaker's older brother's game to deteriorate?
(a) He gets more involved with his job and adult responsibilities.
(b) He develops a substance use disorder.
(c) He starts spending more time with his girlfriend.
(d) He develops a chronic injury.

10. In "These Hands, If Not Gods," what does "the seven days of your body" allude to (7)?
(a) The Biblical creation story.
(b) The week the speaker spent with the beloved.
(c) The legend of the Centimani.
(d) The week the speaker was separated from the beloved.

11. In "Catching Copper," what kind of "comb" is meant in the page 9 lines, "you should see my brothers' bullet/ make a comb, by chewing holes/ in what is sweet"?
(a) A hair comb.
(b) A textile comb.
(c) A rooster's comb.
(d) A honeycomb.

12. In "Manhattan Is a Lenape Word," what creature does the speaker claim is walking down West 29th Street?
(a) A coyote.
(b) A rabbit.
(c) A bull.
(d) A lion.

13. In "From the Desire Field," to what creature does the speaker compare herself?
(a) A cat.
(b) A bull.
(c) A wolf.
(d) An owl.

14. In "Like Church," what fruit does the speaker say the afterlife will be full of?
(a) Melons.
(b) Pomegranates.
(c) Apples.
(d) Figs.

15. In "Ink-Light," to what does the speaker compare her desire?
(a) A carnivorous plant.
(b) A bomb.
(c) A train.
(d) A jaguar.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Wolf OR-7," what technique is being employed in the page 33 line, "My mind climbed the rise, fall, rise of your bared back"?

2. In "Skin-Light," when the speaker uses the word "lightmonger," what literary technique is this an example of (22)?

3. In "Catching Copper," what technique is used in the strophe about the brothers dancing, on page 10, when the dance "The worm" is mentioned?

4. According to "American Arithmetic," what percentage of the U.S. population is Native American?

5. In "American Arithmetic," what does the narrator suggest is better than being invisible?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 589 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample